No. 11 Taylor Volleyball Stockpiles All-League Awards
Crossroads League Release | TU Honors Page
JACKSON, Mich. – The Crossroads League announced the 2022 volleyball all-league awards on Tuesday, and the No. 11 Taylor Trojans (30-5) boasted eight different athletes or coaches to win awards.
After securing both the regular-season and league-tournament championships, head coach, Erin Luthy, was named the Crossroads League Coach of the Year, while Gabby Reed picked up the league's Assistant Coach-of-the-Year award. The last Trojan coach to win the league's top coaching honor was Taylor hall-of-famer, Brittany Huyser Smith, who won the award in 2007, 2008, and 2010.
Luthy, who began her TU coaching career in 2016, has already achieved her highest single season win total in 2022, as the Trojans have 30 wins heading into the National Tournament this weekend. Luthy currently sits seven wins away from 150 for her career at Taylor.
Seniors, Ryan Czerniak and Kacy Bragg meanwhile were recipients of two of the league's top player awards, with Czerniak garnering Taylor's first Crossroads League Player-of-the-Year honor since Kelsey Pritchard did so in 2011.
Czerniak's top honor came in the wake of a season in which she led the entire NAIA in hitting percentage, a mark which currently reads .400. Along the way, TU's right-side hitter posted a single match hitting percentage of .500 or higher in 10 matches, separating herself as the only player in the nation to finish the regular season with a mark of .400 or better.
As the Trojans prepare for the National Championship Opening Rounds, Czerniak ranks second in the Crossroads League with 427 kills and sits third with 3.65 kills-per-set. TU's fifth-year senior from Danville, Indiana, has achieved all this as a non-six-rotation player, highlighting the remarkable effectiveness of her presence on the court.
Czerniak has now received All-Crossroads League honors in each of her five seasons in a Taylor uniform.
While Czerniak was dubbed the league's player of the year, Bragg was named the Crossroads League Setter of the Year for the second-consecutive season as she led the league with a mark of 10.97 assists-per-set.
The next closest player in the league averaged a whole 1.40 fewer assists-per-set than Bragg, as the native of Warsaw, Indiana, posted an impressive 17 40-plus-assists performances throughout 2022. Even more, TU's setter has scored 50-or-more assists four times and a career-high 61 assists twice this season.
Bragg currently ranks second in the entire nation with 1,382 total assists, and along the way has become just the fifth Trojan in program history to surpass 4,000-career assists.
Alongside her assist numbers, however, Bragg has also posted 2.47 digs-per-set, 0.96 kills, 0.56 blocks, and 0.27 aces-per-set throughout her senior season. On 13 different occasions, Bragg has scratched a double-double into the scorebook, combining double-digit assist and dig numbers in a single match.
Joining Czerniak and Bragg as First-Team All-Crossroads League performers was Grace College graduate transfer, Anna Frey. Now having received first-team all-league honors in two-straight seasons, Frey currently ranks eighth in the Crossroads League with 328 total kills, 2.93 kills-per-set, and a .220 hitting percentage.
Frey has posted 18 double-digit kill performances throughout 2022, including 10 double-doubles which have bolstered the league's 14th-best mark of 2.86 digs-per-set. While in her first season sporting a Trojan uniform, Frey was especially strong throughout TU's Crossroads League Tournament Championship run, leading the Trojans with 38 kills scattered throughout three tournament matches.
Arlanda Faulkner earned Second-Team All-Crossroads League honors in what was also her first season playing in front of the TU faithful inside Odle Arena. Faulkner posted the league's seventh-best hitting percentage mark of .250, while ranking 12th in the league with 308 kills. Along the way, Taylor's transfer from North Carolina Central, posted double-digit kills numbers in 15 different matches, including a season-high 20-kill performance in Taylor's regular season-finale win over No. 21 Marian.
Receiving Honorable-Mention All-League recognition was sophomore mid-hitter, Grace Ieremia, who currently leads the entire nation with 157 total blocks. Ieremia leads the Crossroads League in block assists, total blocks, and blocks-per-set with a mark of 1.33. In seven different matches throughout 2022, the West Florida transfer posted seven or more total blocks, paving the way toward a season in which Ieremia currently holds the fifth-most blocks assists in TU program history.
Also receiving recognition for her defensive prowess was McKaylah Flagle, who was named to the Crossroads League All-Freshman Team. Flagle currently ranks eighth in the league with 411 digs, while sitting 10th in the league with a mark of 3.29 digs-per-set. The freshman from New Palestine, Indiana, posted 24 double-digit digs performances throughout the 2022 season, 21 of which have occurred in Taylor's most-recent 24 matches.
Behind the leadership and talent of these eight individuals, No. 11 Taylor (30-5) is set to participate in its first NAIA National Championship Opening Rounds since 2011. The Trojans are slated to host RV Campbellsville (21-6) inside Odle Arena on Saturday, November 19, at 7:00 pm.